SEAS Prestige T18RE/XFCTV2 (H1333) 7" Coaxial, clear Cone

Hi Folks,
I will come back and add detail to my review, but I wanted to get it up immediately. This speaker makes a fabulous.... FABULOUS .... center channel speaker for a home theater. The very important reason it is the only high fidelity solution to a center channel is that there is no two driver cancellation in the critical midrange band from 2k to 4k that plagues all horizontally mounted MTM or D'Appolito configured commercial or DIY made center channels.

The coincident tweeter ensures that there are no phase cancellations across your listening room either side to side or up and down... and provides the literal pointt source for the sound... with no cancellations. You would not believe how much critical intelligibility mid range is lost with a side by side MTM center channel!

I am currently using two Polk towers for front LR and satellite rears.. and when switching between Stereo and Surround sound with the center channel handling perhaps 60%.. I can barely hear the transition, except the this SEAS center channel sounds smoother and more life like than the Polks.

Do not be afraid of the deep notch in the high frequencies on the Spec Sheet. That deep notch is caused by a 3/8 inch "cup" projecting around the tweeter, to give it horn loading and extra output to match the woofer at a 2.5k or so crossover point. When you measure just a few degrees off dead center, the notch narrows substantially and is inaudible to the ear.

I can come back and give specs, but mine is installed in a Madisound "oldie" .38 cubic foot box, ported to respond solidly down to 80 hz before rolling off.

As most of you likely know, not only is all the dialog programmed into the center channel so audibility is critical... a significant amount of bass is there also.. so a center channel needs to be able to carry some watts to do the job.. and have pretty gutsy bass response. This one has it all.

I reduced the baffle step on my XO because my speaker is mounted not too far from a wall.. so I will come back and provide my XO details at a later date.

It astounds me that perhaps 90% of all home theater center channel speakers are MTM and produce terrible response off center! If any one knew how bad the sound that they are listening to... had the ability to measure.. these would be flying off the shelves!

My revised crossover for the H1333 mounted directly under a flat screen TV on a stand approx. 24 inches above the floor, approx 20 inches from the back wall. I mounted it in a .5 cu foot sealed cabinet, full stuffing of fiberglass. Woofer 2 mH coil series and 8 microfarad shunt to ground. Tweeter + lead to + supply (in phase). 3.3 mfd capacitor series, .25 mH coil shunt to ground, 3 ohm series resistor. In my location, with bass support by being close to the wall and the floor, this speaker is flat at the listening spot approx 12 feet away from 40hz to 20k hz with a small dip where the lip around the tweeter providing a little horn loading makes a deep notch in response dead on axis. This notch is a very narrow on axis phenomenon, and is not audible when testing out to 100 milliseconds.. which is what happens in the listening space. This is the only real solution to a truly workable center channel I have found that delivers both low end power necessary for descent movie listening... and off center listening that doesn't have massive deep nulls at very important frequencies a side mount MTM will deliver. Again 5 stars.

My revised crossover for the H1333 mounted directly under a flat screen TV on a stand approx. 24 inches above the floor, approx 20 inches from the back wall. I mounted it in a .5 cu foot sealed cabinet, full stuffing of fiberglass. Woofer 2 mH coil series and 8 microfarad shunt to ground. Tweeter + lead to + supply (in phase). 3.3 mfd capacitor series, .25 mH coil shunt to ground, 3 ohm series resistor. In my location, with bass support by being close to the wall and the floor, this speaker is flat at the listening spot approx 12 feet away from 40hz to 20k hz with a small dip where the lip around the tweeter providing a little horn loading makes a deep notch in response dead on axis. This notch is a very narrow on axis phenomenon, and is not audible when testing out to 100 milliseconds.. which is what happens in the listening space. This is the only real solution to a truly workable center channel I have found that delivers both low end power necessary for descent movie listening... and off center listening that doesn't have massive deep nulls at very important frequencies a side mount MTM will deliver. Again 5 stars.